Warnings

Boy/boy pairings, the use and abuse of stereotypes, hints at original pairings, regular updates (I know people are not used to this), a sometimes excessive level of cuteness and a useless Warnings section at the beginning of each chapter.

Chapter Notes

If you travel with lies you will reach your destination, but you might be unable to retrace your steps

Chapter 14: Hyperdrive

"I don't think they'll be happy with that."

The sun was already setting down behind the horizon, spreading a reddish tint on a couple of brothers pinned against the gate of the old school. Sora thought that color was fitting on his brother.

"You worry too much. We'll simply ask them, if they won't be ok with this they'll simply say that Riku can't come, right?"

Everybody knew that Roxas had never liked Riku too much, even if the two of them knew each other since childhood. The recent events had more than probably even harshened his feelings towards the upperclassman.

"Hey, Riku!" Sora exclaimed waving a hand when he saw a silver-haired figure coming towards them. "Over here!"

"Stop squeaking like a girl! Seriously, I'm the one who is supposed to be the sissy one." Sora totally ignored his brother's remark, focused as he was on noticing how much Roxas had started to joke around his sexuality in just a couple of day since his confession. After he had made sure that there was no one else around, of course.

"What are you smiling at, Sora?" a sincerely curious Riku asked, interrupting the flow of his thoughts. "Hi, Rox." he then added. The blond boy nodded slightly.

"Uh? Oh, nothing worth of mention, I suppose. But, hey, I'm happy that we'll spend a few days together." He was so used to it, that Sora could mentally see Roxas rolling his eyes. Nobody had the time to add anything else because a too much loud to be legal car horn startled them. It belonged to a sport car whose bright red color contrasted vividly with the blue hair of the serious-looking guy driving it. Next to him, a more matching red-haired boy, cigarette in hand and smile on face, was talking to the third and last occupant of the car. They stopped right next to them.

"Hey, kiddo. Nice to see you." Axel greeted him.

"You're coming too, Riku? Way cool!" From the little he knew him, Sora had always thought that Demyx probably suffered from hyperactivity. Seeing him gesticulate while walking towards them only confirmed his suspicion.

Saïx looked a lot less amused. "What's this? It was an invitation for you and your brother!" Sora and Riku clearly didn't know what to say. Roxas made a grimace that totally meant: 'Told you, bro.'

"Aw, relax, Saïx. There will be plenty of space in Larx's car and you know how they say, don't you?"

"Better alone than in bad company?" Well, that was surprising: Saïx was able of irony. If he was being ironic, anyway.

"The more, the merrier! Don't worry about what Saïx says, Riku. You're coming with us and it will be fun." an overjoyed Demyx exclaimed, happily jumping around.

Saïx grumbled a few words without even bothering to exit the car: it was painfully clear that he didn't like too much the idea of Riku coming with them. Sora thought that he could have become best friend with his brother.

"Oh-my-oh-my. Looks like Larx has taken it again..." And a burst of laughter erupted from all the three older boys. Yes, because even Saïx couldn't help but laugh at the sight of the little pink car that was getting closer. Larxene was driving, while Zexion, on the passenger seat, was reading a book, quietly ignoring them.

"Ok." the blond girl started when she stopped next to the six boys. "The first one to do another stupid comment on my mom's car -and I stress it, my mom's car-, ..."

"Nice to see you too, Larx. And relax, I was talking about Zexion..."

"Always a honor the pleasure of your company, guys." Zexion answered without lifting the eyes from his book.

"So..." Larxene started to peer at Sora, Roxas and Riku. "These are the kids we'll have to babysit all the weekend?"

"Hey, Riku is my age!" an offended Demyx exclaimed, clearly resented.

"Indeed. I'm pretty sure that Larx was including you too." At Saïx's comment and Demyx's pout, Sora and Roxas started laughing and relaxed a little. Riku, looked slightly annoyed by the show.

"Afraid to interrupt this charming moment, but we're already late and Tierra de Partida is quite far from here."

That was enough to pick the silver-haired boy curiosity. "Tierra de Partida? That Tierra de Partida?"

Axel glared at Zexion. "Thanks for spoiling the surprise, Zexion."

"Uh, what's so special about this place?" a confused Sora asked.

"What's so special? It's one of the most exclusive places you'll ever find, bro."

Riku started to move towards Saïx, a clearly defying attitude plastered on his face. "It's also incredibly expensive to get a room there, are you sure we can afford to..."

Saïx glared back at him. "First: we won't get a 'room' but a chalet. Second: it's all free because a friend of us invited us there." He payed particular attention at stressing carefully those two letters "And third: watch your tone with me, silver boy."

"I'm already liking this guy." Roxas whispered to his brother.

An hour later, a red sport car hosting five boys was running on a deserted highway.

"Move that foot from there!"

"That was a little too much on Riku, Saïx. I mean, it was totally uncalled for." Axel answered while moving his left foot from the gear level and adding it to the right one, on the dashboard of the car. He then turned his head towards the back seats. "Don't you think too, kiddo?"

"Uh..." Sora didn't really know what to answer; luckily Riku was traveling with Larxene, Demyx and Zexion on the other car, but that didn't change the fact that he was feeling a bit uncomfortable at criticizing the guy who had invited him.

"You were totally right! Sometimes Riku is just plain insufferable."

"Hey, if blondie here says so it must be true." Axel quickly switched side, supporting Roxas' sentence with a great smile towards him.

"That's not true!" Saïx budgeted a little as to say something, but when nothing came out Sora continued. "Maybe sometimes he can give the wrong impression, but it's a nice guy and..."

"Yeah, like when he kissed you at the party?" Saïx quickly retorted, freezing the atmosphere. The buzz of a fly echoed in the car. Axel coughed a little.

"...sorry, I didn't mean it." The blue-haired boy looked honestly sorry. "What I wanted to say is..."

"...is that you need to let loose and relax without worrying about anything." Axel concluded putting his hands behind his head and letting himself go on the seat. "Because..." he paused for a moment, looking at the driver. "...where we are going, you can!"

"Uh? What do you mean by..." Roxas was interrupted mid-sentence by a phone ringing.

"Hello, the Flurry of Dancing Flames here, if you're sexy and between 16 and 60 speak freely." Saïx rolled his eyes. A few screams were audible from the other side of the phone. "Sheesh, no need to use such big words, Larx."

"So, Saïx, what's so special about this place?" Sora asked, ignoring the redhead on the phone.

"Terra, the owner of the chalet, will give a great party tomorrow evening. It does so three or four times every year and people from all over will come, really interesting people usually." he paused for a little. "There's just a rule you'll have to follow there: what happens in there, stays in there."

Once stopped talking, he looked at Axel who was still on the phone. "Uh, he won't be happy to hear this. Thanks, Zex, see you later."

"I thought you were talking to Larxene"

"Uh? Oh no, she was just screaming in the phone. Guess what?" The blue-haired boy looked at the redhead inquiringly. "Zexion called Terra to tell him that we'll be three more..."

"Really interesting." Saïx answered ironically. "And..."

Axel started to play with his phone. "Let's see how I could put it... who is the person that you have the least pleasure to see?"

For the first time, Sora could distinctly recognize some emotions on Saïx's face. Namely concern. "Please, don't tell me that my cousin will come too!"

"That's what Zex heard." the redhead said with a smirk.

"Uhm... is that a problem?" Sora asked timidly.

"Saying that my cousin is a problem would be as appropriate as compare the Niagara falls to a shower."

"He's a chronic troublemaker, nothing more, nothing less." Axel precised.

Roxas gave his brother a knowing look. "Yeah, well, I thought you all were..."

"Nope. It's a completely different thing."

"We joke. We amuse ourself and all the people around us." And to think that Axel had managed to look nearly serious until that moment... "Granted, sometimes someone, not necessarily one of us, gets in trouble and all, but, hey, that's all part of the game."

"My cousin is different: he... well, just watch out to never get on his bad side, you'll regret it." And with that sentence Saïx definitely closed the discussion.

"Uhm, so what was that story about 'what happens in there, stays in there', then?"

Axel and Saïx exchanged a conspiratorial look. "Well, they are going to discover it there, anyway, care to do the honors, Lea?"

"Of course, dear Isa." Axel cleared his throat and made a one hundred eighty loop on his seat to better look at the twins. "You use to know us as the chronic troublemakers of the school or whatever-shit-I-don't-care-about people stick on us. At Terra's we're known as parts of flowering plants that derives from specific tissues of the flower."

An idiotic expression betraying the total incomprehension of what Axel was blabbering about was painfully clear on the boys' face.

"Fruits." Saïx explained with an unusual smirk.

"You are..." Sora finally articulated a few seconds later, Axel still staring at them and grinning.

"All of us."

"But... how..." Roxas muttered.

"Come on! You two really thought to be the only homos in our school? We just don't like to show it to everyone like kiddo here and his friend Riku. Blondie is a lot more discreet..." Axel was surely enjoying every second of that situation. Sora, on the other side, was shocked. Not half as much as his brother, though.

"How..." Roxas was clearly starting to hyperventilate. "How... do you... know..." he finally murmured.

"About you?" Axel smiled. "You owe me one, blondie. What do you think kept those idiots of your 'friends' from blabbing your secret to everyone?"

Saïx glared at the redhead. "Axel!"

Roxas opened his mouth, but said nothing. "It was you?" Sora asked in his stead.

A strange light shone in Axel's eyes, scaring a little the brunet. "Let's just say that everyone has something to hide. Or to be blackmailed with. Same thing in the end. That's also when I first noticed your pretty face..."

Judging from his face, that was now the same color as Axel's hair, Sora realized that his brother was on the verge of a panic attack. "It doesn't make any sense!" he finally exploded. Saïx was clearly not pleased by that reaction.

"If you didn't know me, why did you help me? More than that, you didn't know what happened, yet you arrived at the right place at the right moment! You probably didn't even knew my 'friends' but you conveniently had something to 'blackmail' them with! What's going on?" For the whole time Axel kept his eyes on him, his trademark grin always on his face. "You..." the blond boy started again, slightly lowering his tone. "You just invited us because we..." he looked a moment at Sora. "Because I'm..."

"Yes that's part of it." Axel simply answers.

"I'd told you not to tell them about it, Lea."

"And what about the names? What's going on?" Roxas was still out of control and Saïx was getting clearly irritated at his behavior.

"We won't discuss about it anymore. It doesn't matter how he got hear of it, just be thankful that he did." Saïx shut them up. "And it doesn't matter why we invited you here, it's not some kind of gay orgy or whatever strange thing you are probably imagining right now, so just relax, it will be worth it anyway." Another small pause. "As for our names, it's just an old costume, a lot of people prefer to adopt a surname at Terra's, it's not mandatory but you can do it too if you want. So remember: when we'll be there, no more Saïx, Axel, Zexion, Demyx and Larxene. That will be Isa, Lea, Ienzo, Dyme and Elrena."

Sora took a few moments to digest all of those informations. 'Surnames? That's the most childish idea I've ever heard, where the hell are we going?' He spent the rest of their travel mentally enumerating the reasons to start getting worried.

End Notes

A chapter this long is a pain but also a pleasure to write. And the original one, while mostly unchanged concerning the contents, was almost twice as long (that's why I decided to split it in two in the end). At least some stuff have been finally clarified, I guess. Hope it was worth the effort :).

Preview

Let's meet Terra and Aqua! And maybe also someone else...

Next chapter (05.11.2019): Earthshaker